The Lethe's Kiss

Pleasure is a sort of oblivion, a forgetfulness. Pain is remembrance, you cannot forget pain.

Welcome to the Lethe’s Kiss

Hentai & Horror

This campaign will be dealing with adult themes in an occasionally unpleasant fashion. The notion that a subject or event is too uncomfortable or too taboo will be ignored for the purposes of moving the narrative of both the campaign and the individual characters forward, and players are to be warned that no quarter will be given to those who choose to brave the world alone.

That said, there is a lot of potential in a campaign where the worst horrors imaginable are loosed upon the world, allowing the players a wider margin of “grey” morality to play in before they begin to slip into the “villain” category. This campaign is geared towards anti-heros, towards those who battle corruption in spite of having taken a portion of it into themselves.

To combat the oppressive nature of this all pervasive evil, players are being given a number of Character Options as well as Gestalt Classes in order to not only further customize their characters but to give them a greater sense of power. While doing this, the players are also asked to draw their attention to Corruption, a force that keeps their more decadent acts of evil and perversion in check, theoretically.

Above the Table

This is a personal project, something I’ve wanted to do for years: a mature horror fantasy campaign that deals in themes of depravity and perversion without the table descending into a group of tittering school girls. I think I’ve got the group to do it now, by and large. If I’m wrong, all I’ve wasted two weeks of my time and a lot of my remaining fucks to give.

Players are asked to keep an ear open during character creation, and to build characters who can work in a group on a personal level, not just be a good system support. I don’t expect every player to be playing the Den Mother, but I think an expectation of players building characters who can function in a group shouldn’t be too high an aim for a troupe based game. Concepts are important, as is playing your character to fit them, so here are some character concepts that may get you into trouble.

And yes, this campaign will also be dealing with issues of Eugenics and racial politics, as well as systems similar to Apartheid and slavery. Religious persecution in a world where no gods answer prayers, and the true horrors and violence that can result from a war where both sides feel that the divine is on their side.

Anyone curious about any aspect of this campaign, that doesn’t spoil storyline, is welcome to contact me directly regarding their questions. There is also this page, in which I try to anticipate and answer questions regarding particular aspects.

On the Table

The Lethe’s Kiss is, at its root, a fallen world. Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy, where the Things From Beyond worked subtly at first, through agents masquerading as allies to the indigenous people, until Their plans were ready. The local populations have lost control of the known world, and possibly beyond. The Otherworld has spilled fully into the Real World, and infects every inch of it without any sign of being stoppable. Entire swaths of land are rife with the corruption of the Otherworld, to the point where just drinking the water or eating the fruit in some places will draw more of its Corruption into you.

The people of Nalusha had no legends for this, no mythology that prepared them for the Lethe’s arrival, or the treachery of Humanity. There are no tales of an Otherworld, except in the oldest children’s tales and moral homilies. For Three Ages of Nalusha, its people lived in ignorance of the dangers at its border and prospered in relative ease and peace.

Now, however, come signs of something more sinister than the Lethe itself. Ruins are discovered where there were none before, and ancient tomes are discovered in old sacred places in languages never before seen. Rumors of lost magic and forgotten tongues fill much of the popular folklore, as do the sudden arrival of haunted cities and ghost-filled fortresses.

For many scholars of Nalusha history and folklore, a question has begun to circle: Where did the Humans come from? Why did they know how to speak to the people of Nalusha? How did they know where to construct their Shrine to maximize their Lords’ power?

The First Footsteps

At the beginning of the story, the characters have been called to Starkrest, where The Sacred Flame conceals themselves from the eyes of Humanity, working to bring about a resistance to the Lethe and its Corruptions. One from each of the 9 peoples of Nalusha summoned to the Flame to receive a quest that the Seers of that order believe may give hope to many, and provide a rallying call for those who refuse to fight.